He’s only spending the Christmas break with family and friends in North Vancouver, British Columbia. When the Kings resume play Saturday, he’ll be back with them. He hasn’t been banished to the minor leagues after his eight-game winning streak ended Monday night.

“They did a good job,” Jones said of the Stars, the first team to beat Jones in his first nine NHL starts. “But I didn’t think we got big saves when we needed them. You spot a team like that two goals early and it’s pretty tough to win.

“It’s one game. It (stinks) to lose, but it’s just one game.”

The Kings were so good for so long after No. 1 goalie Jonathan Quick suffered a groin injury in a Nov. 12 game against the Buffalo Sabres that perhaps they were due for a letdown. After all, Monday’s defeat was only their third in regulation play since Quick was injured.

When the Kings fell, they went down with a thud against the Stars. Jones gave up goals to Seguin, on a quick shot from the slot, and to a streaking Benn on a wicked backhander over his left shoulder in the game’s opening 3:48.

The Stars erased the Kings’ 1-0 lead in short order and then took the lead for good on Nichushkin’s power-play goal 5:07 into the middle period. Seguin set up the play with a cross-ice pass that Nichushkin one-timed into the back of the net. Jones would have needed a cape to get to the shot.

Eakin padded the Stars’ lead with a third-period goal, and Horcoff was awarded Dallas’ fifth and final goal after Kings defenseman Drew Doughty took him down as Horcoff skated toward an empty net in the closing moments of the game.

“We’ve had a pretty good run here,” center Anze Kopitar said referring to the Kings’ 14-3-3 mark since Quick’s injury, which included victories in eight of their last nine games with Jones in goal. “It’s time to recharge for a couple of days and get right back at it.”

Kings captain Dustin Brown was ill and couldn’t play on the same day the San Jose Sharks announced rookie center Tomas Hertl would need surgery on his right knee. Brown injured Hertl in a knee-to-knee collision during the Kings’ 4-1 victory Thursday.

The Sharks were upset the NHL didn’t suspend Brown after the open-ice collision. Brown received a 5-minute kneeing penalty and a game misconduct after clipping Hertl near the end of the first period. The Sharks aren’t sure how long Hertl might be sidelined.

Sharks general manager Doug Wilson told a reporter from our sister paper, the San Jose Mercury News, it was disappointing no one from the Kings expressed concern for Hertl after the injury.

Wilson said Raffi Torres reached out to Stoll after injuring him in the playoffs last spring.

Elliott Teaford covers the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He covered the Ducks for 12 years, including the Stanley Cup season, for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze before returning to the beat in 2018 for SCNG. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.